More evidently in the last 15 years, defending has become of less importance it would seem to fans and coaches, the money in the game, and the influence of broadcasting giants, there is more importance put on entertainment for the punters, which has made the game change and also the rules have changed in line with this, offside rule changes, tackling from behind, if you make any sliding challenge you are running the risk of a yellow card, plus things such as the ball being lighter, better pitches, advances in footwear etc, all designed to encourage more goals, more entertainment.
Source: dfb.de
My question is though is it more entertaining? For me a fair battle between a good attacking player and a good defender is entertaining, both players trying to outdo each other, in my eyes that is entertainment. I am not saying lets go back to days of Ron Harris, Tommy Smith, Norman Hunter etc, when first five minutes they pretty much could hack a player, let him know your there statement and get away with it, but I do think it’s time to even the field a bit and I also think basic defending is not what it used to be.
I remember reading about Arsenal and George Graham in the 90’s spending hours and hours practicing lining up their back four, having them on a rope, being in a line, practicing also full backs covering for their centre backs when ball in opposite side of the pitch, talking to each other etc. Also read an article by Gary Neville about his training techniques with Eric Harrison when with Manchester United Youth playing hours on end attack against defence, and also the coaching techniques of Don Howe when he was at England at his work on set pieces, and to me, we do not see the same level of scrutiny to detail or a pride in keeping a clean sheet.
When I was a lad I was coached by Stan Montgomery an ex Cardiff City player, who took defending as an art form, if I was playing left back and we were in the middle of a training match he would stop play at certain points and ask one of the defenders, what were they thinking at that point and where could he see any danger. It made you think about your game and your team mates and was one of the best bits of training I ever had.
Recent years I get so frustrated when I see international defenders up against attackers and their body shapes are all wrong. I watched a match recently, where Gareth Bale was playing down the right wing and the full back kept showing him inside onto his left foot, and I found myself shouting at the telly. This is not an isolated incident, we are seeing in recent years, wide players who play on opposite sides to their natural kicking foot and in some cases their only kicking foot, yet full backs send them onto their correct side. This to me is basic defending you send them onto their wrong side, you watch opposition and you study players. I never understood defenders when defending David Beckham, he would never beat you with pace, Beckham wanted that yard to be able to curl in a cross and was arguably the best crosser of a football, however, for me full backs should have take a step off him and stand directly in line of the angle he wanted to cross it, make Beckham do something different, I only ever saw one full back do this and it was Paolo Maldini, one of the greatest defenders of all time. And again no I am not saying we go back to incidents where world class players with the abilities of players such as Diego Maradona (and not many of those have been seen) is having to put up with challenges like he faced from players such as Claudio Gentile or Andoni Goicoechea.
For me the offside rule needs to change, this not interfering with play I totally disagree with, as Brian Clough said if a player is not interfering with play then he should not be playing. Catching players offside is a skill and with this interpretation of a player not moving towards it means not offside but then can carry on once someone else gets the ball and potentially score in the same move is wrong and does not help defenders at all. And this should be changed.
In closing I am all for exciting riveting viewing where the great attacking stars are able to show their full armory of skills, however a proper fair battle between an Alan Shearer type striker and a Tony Adams type defender, or a top winger like Gareth Bale pitting his wits against a full back like Phillip Lahm is also riveting, entertaining viewing. Let’s let it happen.
Craig Muncey
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